Vijay Awards 2008

I watched the complete show though the clarity was poor in the online links.... I dint know what was in for me but just started watching as I was bored at home.... I would not regret the 5 hrs spent in it just for the fact of watching Kamal Hassan up and down the stage and gaining laurels to his name :)

The hype for Varanam Aayiram was too much and not to forget the scene of Surya taking the award got too sentimental... Irrespective of that, he deserved the award for when I think of his looks in the movie, he looked perfect to be a boy of age 17 , or 22 or 25 or even the dad character guy. Just for the effort involved in making sure he suites the age perfect :)

A few were argumental like Bhagyaraj son Shanthanu getting the fresh face when we had amazing performance from the Anjathae guy.... Somehow Saroja deserved to have something for bringing good comedy with thrill but sad that it went home empty handed.

Subramaniyapuram and Anjathae happened to get some good deserving awards and gave a good competition to Varanam Aayiram. But at the end, Best Director to Gautham was somehow not convincing to me while KS Ravikumar really deserved it.

The show was an entertainer to me as I dint find any interesting Tamil movies in the 2 months. They dint bug us much with entertaining dances. The number were pretty less.

I am eagerly waiting for "Unnaipol Oruvan" . All the best Kamal Hassan!!!

Empire State Building NY

Its a beautiful building to see and visit. Ofcourse worth the wait for 1 hr in the rush and then get to the top and see the view of the city from there. If you go before noon I would even say the wait is just an hr and again the problem is you have only 3 elevators and hence the wait time is going to be there always... Same holds good when you have to come down again.... The trip to reach the top is worth the wait as its gift for the eyes to see.


What of the Sky Ride in the Empire State Building? You have to pay for it separately and to add on, the ride is just not worth the money. More if you are one person who has already been to Disney/Orlando and enjoyed all simulated rides, this is just a kids ride and you will find it totally waste your money. This ride is 20 min but again you will have to wait for the show for at least 30 to 40 min in the queue. If your unlucky you might end up missing that show and pushed to the next one also :(

But then I would say if you have the 3 day or 1 day new york city pass which gives you some 50 attractions in it, then you can go for the sky ride. Even then if you feel there is shortage of time, I suggest you to skip this one :)

DC Museums and visit

A place where you find so many museums that I would say you need more than a week to visit, learn and enjoy each of it. You name it and you find a museum on that subject there :) The best part of it is, entry to all the museums is free and I cant imagine something like this and still everything is so perfect, well organised and maintained so well...

Specially the Museum of Space and Air is so huge and so much to learn from there :) I cant comment much as I managed to visit only 4 of them.

World war 2 memorial is a treat for the eyes, beautifully maintained. Each and every monument in that location is amazing. Korean war memorial, Lincoln memorial, Vietnam war memorial everything was so wonderful to see. The view from Washington Monument and US capitol building, White House each of these a masterpiece in itself.

One thing which would be more wonderful to see for visitors is US Capitol tour, which should be booked 2 weeks in advance online, you wont get it otherwise. Washington Monument also needs a very early booking like early in the morning at 8AM. So if you really wish to tour the 2 places, make sure to plan before and pick your tickets. I would also add both would be worth a tour.

Of the few places I have visited around US, I would vote for DC as the best. A place so beautiful to see, so neat and organised. Wish I could have visited the place in the start of Springs or may be should visit for the fall :)